A TON OF REASONS WHY RIVALS WILL NOT CHANGE THEIR MINDS ON CITY

ONE of the many things about the Premier League’s case against Manchester City that puzzles is the timing.

Having had four years to compile the 100-plus charges, they table them slap-bang in the middle of a season.

The argument would be that, once you are finally satisfied your allegations will stick, then that is the time to make them public.

As soon as you are confident you have a watertight case, then lay the charges, no matter how inconvenient it might be for some.

Tough.

But, as a long legal battle looms, this Premier League season has been undermined. What if City win and are then found guilty? “My first thought is that we have already been condemned,” Pep Guardiola (below) said on Friday. “We are lucky that we live in a marvellous country that everyone is innocent until proven guilty... we didn’t have this opportunity. We were already sentenced.”

And, to a large extent, he is right.

In a legal sense, Manchester City CAN clear their name, obviously, but that will not alter the perception in some people’s minds that the club have done something wrong.

It probably won’t alter the perception in some other club directors’ minds.

People will see the sheer weight of charges, consider the length of time it has taken to bring them and assume that the Premier League are certain of their case.

That will hang over City and Pep until judgement is reached and that will not happen before the end of the season (it probably won’t happen before the end of next season).

So, the timing of the allegations means Guardiola must conduct his latest title challenge under a cloud, even though the most recent season the charges relate to is 2017/18.

Because, if City are found guilty, their three title wins since 2017/18 will also be tarnished – not because they transgressed any rules in those campaigns, but because the previous years formed the bedrock of their recent successes.

The players who signed since 2017/18 signed for a club that established itself as an annual contender for major trophies.

Those same players, as Guardiola suggested ahead of the match against Aston Villa, are unlikely to be affected by the charges as they take the field for the challenges that lie ahead between now and June .

And the manager himself was suitably defiant.

But it is impossible to say that it is business as normal for City as they look for success in the Premier League, Champions League and the FA Cup.

Guardiola has already made that success hard for himself this season by bombing out Joao Cancelo and making a series of slightly odd team selections.

But the timing of these charges has just made it one heck of a lot harder.

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It is impossible to say that it is business as normal for City as they look for success